Editorial analysis: Protect rights against judicial theft; Drag 26/11 mastermind Sajid Mir by neck

Spread the love

In the daily editorial analysis, except for Sundays, The Raisina Hills critically reviews the comments of the top five English newspapers of India.

The economic prosperity is no guarantee for an evolved society.

By overturning the 1973 Roe v. Wade judgment, the US is now in the company of Iraq, Laos and Egypt on women’s abortion rights, a situation that will indeed embarrass Joe Biden as he globetrots to corner rival Vladimir Putin.

The Economic Times (ET), The Hindu and Deccan Herald (DH) have come out with sharp editorials on the US Supreme Court’s invalidating the 50-year freedom of women there with a 6-3 split verdict, largely attributed to former US President Donald Trump’s conservative judicial appointments.

The ET in its Edit ‘Why rights need proactive protecting’ sums up grim scenario in the US, as 26 out of 50 states will ban abortion for pregnancies of up to 22-24 weeks, underlining that ‘civil liberties and protecting rights are mutually exclusive of economic development and progress’. It quotes Martin Luther King Jr’s words “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice” to argue constant dialogue in the society.

The Hindu’s Edit ‘Regressive, inhuman’ dubs the US Supreme Court in the wrong side of liberty, while arguing that nixing the Roe v. Wade along with decision on the 1992 Planned Parenthood versus Casey the court has handed over the issue on reproductive rights to the elected representatives.

The Hindu rightly portrays the grim prospects that the verdict may give rise to illegal abortions, risks of miscarriage, and condemning women to carry pregnancies in cases of rape and incest.

Further, it argued that the other rights may be at risk since the logic of Dobbs, the abortion isn’t mentioned in the US Constitution while not being covered by the 14th amendment of 1868 that safeguards liberty, is now gaining dominant judicial acceptance.

DH in its Edit ‘Abortion verdict in US a global worry’ has gone a step ahead of others to claim ramifications in other countries, arguing that the verdict puts personal freedom in perils, predicting that there could be curb on rights of live-in partners and the LGBTQ community.

But none of the three Edits mentioned that the American society, as is the case with the British, is highly conservative, where orthodoxies lord over with their fixed moral values.

India needs not be told that Pakistan is a thug state that harbours terrorists to pursue its state policies.

Pakistan is in deep financial trouble, and its new Prime Minister Shebaz Sharif is in desperate needs to get his country out of the grey list of the FATF (Financial Action Task Force), which seeks to curb terror funding, and that explains the conviction of Majeed Mir, the 26/11 Mumbai terror mastermind, who has been named by David Headley.

The Hindu rightly calls for India to step up measures for immediate extradition of Mir. But 12 years have gone by, it’s known that none of the accused in the 26/11 has yet been held accountable for the dastardly acts.

The Indian Express (IE) in its lead Edit ‘In SC’s name’ has termed the arrests of former Gujarat DGP RB Sreekumar and activist Teesta Setalvad disquieting, while arguing that police actions are based on the observations of the Supreme Court in its three-judge bench which gave clean chit to Narendra Modi in the larger conspiracy case in the post-Godhra riots in 2002 in Gujarat.

Electricity subsidy is the foremost populist politics in the states now, with Delhi, Punjab leading all the way.

The Times of India (ToI) in its Edit ‘Electric message’ has advocated for a transition to DBT (Direct Benefit Transfer) following pilot studies in Kerala and Himachal Pradesh to steel power sector reforms.
The total power distribution companies (Discom) loss in 2019-20 was Rs 5 lakh crore. They suffer due to erring states, which don’t follow the Electricity Act that binds them to make advance payments for such subsidies.